Day 1 - Tuesday, 5/13/2025 Fly to Italy
Transfer to the airport for your overnight flight to Florence. Buon Viaggio! |
|
Day 2 - Wednesday, 5/14/2025 - Dinner Arrive Florence
Arrive in Florence, meet your Tour Manager and transfer to your Tuscan Hotel for a five night stay. This evening enjoy a Welcome Dinner with your fellow travelers. |
|
Day 3 - Thursday, 5/15/2025 - Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner Cooking Class / Olive Oil
Today enjoy an Organic Cooking & Pasta Making Class and Lunch. Enjoy a welcome drink while the chef discusses the class and recipe. The restaurant staff will assist you with your aprons and then the cooking fun begins! At the end of the cooking class you will enjoy what you have prepared for lunch. Later this afternoon visit a local Olive Oil producing farm to learn how olive oil is produce. Sample some organic extra virgin olive oil, along with vinegar and Chianti Classico wine. Dinner is included this evening. |
|
Day 4 - Friday, 5/16/2025 - Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner Volterra & San Gimignano
Today travel to Volterra, another ancient and beautiful hilltop Italian city. Enjoy some free time in Volterra then continue to a family-run farmhouse that specializes in saffron production for lunch. This afternoon, visit San Gimignano, the epitome of a Tuscan hill town, where nobles built splendid towers to outdo one another. Next enjoy a delicious gelato ice cream in one of the oldest gelaterias in Italy that produces unique flavors. Later, visit a local Tuscan Farmhouse and enjoy dinner featuring typical Tuscan dishes paired with local wine. |
|
Day 5 - Saturday, 5/17/2025 - Breakfast - Lunch Lake Trasimeno / Island Maggiore
Journey to Lake Trasimeno, located in the Umbria Region of Tuscany. Heart-shaped Lake Trasimeno is surrounded by rolling hills, olive groves, woods of oak and cypress trees, vineyards, and sunflower fields that frame castle-topped medieval towns and villages. Enjoy a boat cruise to Island Maggiore, where you will have lunch at a traditional restaurant. Return to your hotel with the evening at leisure.
|
|
Day 6 - Sunday, 5/18/2025 - Breakfast Free Day / Lucca & Pisa Optional
Today is a full day at leisure to explore on your own or join the full day optional tour to Pisa & Lucca. See the remarkable Leaning Tower of Pisa and more of Pisa’s “field of miracles,” such as the Duomo and the Baptistry. Visit Lucca and explore the Old Town filled with quaint shops and Gothic palaces. Lucca’s great era was in the Gothic time just before the Renaissance, and the city contains stunning architecture from then.
|
|
Day 7 - Monday, 5/19/2025 - Breakfast - Dinner Sienna / To Florence
This morning travel to Sienna, the heart of Tuscany, where a local guide awaits you for an Old Town Walking Tour. The highlight is the Piazza del Campo, the seashell-shaped square on which the famous horse-race, the Palio, takes
place each year. Enjoy lunch on your own. This afternoon, travel to a lovely Tuscan Estate. Learn about truffles followed by delicious tastings of oil and truffle butter bruschetta, salami, pecorino cheese, and wines from the estate with an included dinner to follow. Later, travel to Florence for a two night stay.
|
|
Day 8 - Tuesday, 5/20/2025 - Breakfast Florence
Today enjoy a Florence City Tour featuring a visit to the Academy Gallery to see Michelangelo’s original Statue of David, an incredible sight. View the Cathedral to see Giotto’s Bell Tower and Baptistry with its impressive ‘Gates of Paradise’. Also see the open-air museum of Piazza Della Signoria & Santa Croce, which houses the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo. The evening is at leisure. |
|
Day 9 - Wednesday, 5/21/2025 - Breakfast Fly Home to USA
Transfer to the airport for your return flights home. Or emabark on the optional extension to Rome.
On the optional extension, travel south to Assisi, known for its art and architecture and the hometown of St. Francis. Enjoy a Walking Tour. Later arrive in Rome. |
|
Day 10 - Thursday, 5/22/2025 - Breakfast Optional Extension in Rome
Embark on a Rome City Tour. See the Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Circus Maximus, Piazza Venezia, Pantheon, and more. Then, tour the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Next, visit St. Peter’s Basilica. |
|
Day 11 - Friday, 5/23/2025 - Breakfast Optional Extension in Rome
Today is a free day to explore Rome at your leisure. |
|
Day 12 - Saturday, 5/24/2025 - Breakfast Optional Extension in Rome
Fly home today with wonderful memories. |
|